Pray, what do you think the elder Pliny suggests, when he affirms it to be "the prorogative of the Art of Healing, that any man, who professes himself a physician, is instantly received as such?" * He certainly suggests, that such sort of professors in his days, like the itenerant and advertising doctors of ours, had a more than ordinary portion of that bold, self-important, and confident look and manner, which, with a very little heightening, may justly be called impudence. And what but this could enable a little paltry physician, of no name or character, to gain so mighty an ascendency over such a spirit, as that of Lewis XI. of France? Read the account in Philip de Commine; and then blame me, if you can, for thinking so highly of this accomplishment.-True it is, that Lewis was afraid of death even to horror, and so as not to bear the sound of the word; and I grant, that on this saine fear the empire of physic, as well as the empire of divinity, is chiefly founded: but I insist, that neither the one nor the other will ever be raised effectually, without the aid and co-operation of this great and sovereign quality.

Pope Gregory VII. who governed the church from 1073 to 1085, is celebrated for having carried ecclesiastical dominion to the height: for he was the first who maintained and established, that popes, by excommunication, may depose kings from their states, and loose subjects from their allegiance. And how did he effect this? Not by genius or eloquence; not by a knowledge of canon law, and the constitutions of the holy see; no, nor by the arts of policy and grimaces of his religion (with all which he was amply endowed) but by a most insolent, daring, usurping spi rit. He seized the papal chair by force, as it were; threw the church into confusion to gratify his ambition;

* In hâc artium solâ evenit, ut cuicunque medicum se professo statim credatur. Nat. Hist. xxix. I cannot, however, confine this to physic: it is true, more or less, of all the professions :

For he that has but impudence

To all things has a fair pretence.

And, certainly, it is most true of divinity. Let any peasant or village mechanic start forth as a preacher, without any preparation or qualification of any kind, will he not instantly be followed, and listened to as a divine?

made kings his slaves, and bishops his creatures; and established in his own person a tyranny over things both spiritual and temporal.-But my admiration of impudence transports ine too far: I will say no more upon it.

S.

THE EMPIRE OF AVA

CONVERTED TO THE RELIGION OF MAHOMET.

AN ORIENTAL ANECDOTE OF THE SIXteenth centURY. From the French.

PART II.

TA-HAIDER knew that his beloved Nahela was the favourite sultana of the emperor of Ava; he had confided a part of his secret to the missionary Dervises, and these reverend persons, whose opinion was sanctioned by the court of Cochin-China, thought they saw in all this the finger of providence, pointing out the mode of converting a great empire.

In the suite of the ambassador was an old CochinChinese dwarf who sold articles of jewellery.

Nahela was young and pretty; she was consequently a coquette, and fond of jewels; the emperor proposed that the dwarf should be brought to her; he struck the ground with his tam-tam, and the six thousand eunuchs cried out: "the emperor is about to speak."

"Let the dwarf approach," said the emperor, and the dwarf advanced; he walked upon little crutches, and was known by the name of the little Mustapha.

a

"Truly, little Mustapha," said Nahela to him, "you have all the appearance of a sorcerer." "I am mussulman, madam," replied the little Mustapha, rather drily, "and I am come to shew you some jewels." He displayed before her some of his most valuable commodities; the Sultana turned them carelessly over. "Here is a Cochin-Chinese ring," said the dwarf.

Nahela eagerly seized it. "It is very pretty," said she, endeavouring to conceal her agitation. "Keep it," said the Sultan to her, and he placed it on her finger.

"Here are some others," continued the dwarf. Na

hela discovered that all the rings were very pretty, and one after the other, they all found their way on her fingers.

She had perceived on the enamel of the first of these rings, the cipher of Ta-Haider; she saw inscribed on each of the others Cochin-Chinese characters, scarcely perceptible, and expressions of love conveyed in hieroglyphicks. Nahela had learned to decipher the mysteries which these hieroglyphicks concealed, and while affecting to admire the several brilliants, she read the following words.

"Ta-Haider, thy faithful Ta-Haider still loves thee; -dost thou, Nahela, still love thy Ta-Haider?-Doth ever a thought of him possess thy bosom?-He is a mussulman;—follow his example;-the Dervises are our friends. The dwarf will bring me thine answer. Ta-Haider dies, if Nahela no longer loves hin."

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Nahela instantly formed her resolution. "You are a mussulman, you say," addressing the little Mustapha, and without waiting for an answer she turned to the Sultan, "Signor,' said she, with an earnestness more than usual, may Tien and Brahma unite to bless the days of your glorious reign; but for your slave she can never be happy, 'till she become a Mahometan. It is an odd fancy, I grant; but I feel something within (placing her hand on her heart) that tells me no other religion can bestow true happiness."

This was an answer to Ta-Haider's billet, and the little Mustapha, after nine prostrations, retired. The emperor threw out some objections which appeared to him conclusive, but which had no such effect on the mind of the Sultana, on whom the spirit of the prophet operated so rapidly, that the good Kein-Hang willing to gratify her, struck the earth once more with his tamtam, and said to the chief of the eunuchs, "Go, and see whether there are any Dervises in my antichamber."

The seraglios of the East have not what we call an tichambers, but they have halls which resemble them, where for a century and a half, either Dervises of Santons were usually to be met with.-It was at this time, the grand æra for propagating Mahometanism. It is not therefore surprizing that Dervises should be found in the antichambers of the seraglio of Ava; they there converted more or less the slaves and eunuchs; these

converted the damsels of the court, who in their turn attempted the conversion of their mistresses; and the Sultan Kein-Hang, the Light of the Lights that illu minate the East, was, without suspecting any thing, almost the only person in the palace, who was not a

little of a mussulman.

He who appeared to be the principal Dervise, was ordered to approach. He had attained the rank of chief of the Asiatic missions in Cochin-China, Pegu, Tonquin, Ava, and other neighbouring kingdoms known or unknown. He had already run a laborious career. in China. He was a philosopher, a great mathematician, and a profound astronomer; he was in other respects, a good sort of man; easy, accommodating, polite, indulgent, somewhat of a hypocrite if you will, and loved all the world, the Santons only excepted. The Cochin-Chinese called him Father Tutto. Father Tutto converted for conversion sake; he fulfilled all the duties of his mission, and strictly conformed to the instructions of the grand Mufti; he did not scruple at times to resort to a few miracles; he could not indeed carry a quarter of the moon in his sleeve, as the prophet had done; but he restored dead persons to life, and walked over rivers with dry feet. One day his chaplet fell into the sea, and it was brought back to him by a crab. The authors of the golden legend of the mussulmen relate, that the crab not thinking it right to turn his posteriors on so holy a man, retreated backwards, and they very gravely add, that ever since this event, crabs have moved in the same retrograde manner.

The Dervise was introduced. Kien-Hang was a tolerant monarch; a Chinese by his father's, a Hindoo by the mother's side, he inade no difference between Tohi and Vishnou; the images of both these deities: equally embellished the hall in which his throne was erected, and Father Tutto, after having prostrated himself nine times before the Sultan, saluted the two gods, one after the other, with a profound incli→ nation of the head.

Nahela had let down two of her three veils. KienHang, who was only jealous because it was then the custom to be so in the empire of Ava, was at the bottom superior to this weakness. He lifted up the veils of his favourite himself.

"Is there not here," said he familiarly to the Dervise," wherewithal to make a very pretty Mahometan?"

The father replied: "God is good; there is no God but one, and Mahomet is one of his prophets." He added that he perceived symptoms of faith in the large black eyes of Nahela.

The Sultan continued: "they say father, your religion is a very good one." "It would be still more so," replied the Dervise, "if there were no Santons among us;" and he immediately related the history of a vio lent persecution which the Santon missionaries had excited against the Dervises in the kingdon of Siam.

Kien-Hang desired the Dervise to give him some idea of the doctrines and mysteries of his religion. Tutto satisfied him upon every point; he made him acquainted with the angel Gabriel and the Koran; he next spoke slightly of the prohibition against the drinking of wine, but expatiated at large on the delights of Paradise, and the Houris; the Houris seemed to please his highness mightily.

Of all the mysteries, that of transformation appeared to the emperor the most simple. As Vishnou was incarnated nine times, and transformed three times to a horse, Mahomet he thought, might easily enough be changed twice into a dromedary. It is true that the Sultan had no great faith in this story, but all his wives gave full credit to it.

When the Dervise had left off speaking, Nahela asked the sublime Sultan, with apparent enthusiasm, what he thought of the matter. He said it was well enough, but he did not feel quite convinced; the favourite, on the contrary, was dying with impat ence to receive the last seal of her conversion. The good Dervise, before he took his leave, gave the Sultana a phial, which contained, he said, the tears and sighs of a young Cochin-Chinese, who died for his religion; he also presented her with a beautiful relic, curiously wrought with hair; the hair was likewise that of a Cochin-Chinese martyr. Nahela conveyed these precious gifts to her lips, and fervently kissed them.

The father promised to send her a Cochin-Chinese convert to finish her instruction; the Sultan did not think that absolutely necessary but he was in love, and whatever gave pleasure to the Sultana, was agree

able to him.

VOL. II.

M